Austin Healey 3000 Rally car - Road test - HD - Great sound!

Austin Healey 3000 Rally Car

In the 1960's car manufacturers proved the durability of their products, not by offering
7 year warranties, but by entering officially organised long distance, road based driving competitions against rival manufacturers. These International events called Rallies caught the imagination of the public and became annual fixtures. Lasting for several days, over thousands of kilometres, on rough roads and inhospitable environments, it was a good way to prove new cars.
The British Motor Corporation (BMC) realised that the Austin Healey, in particular the 3000 model, could be the basis for a winning car. They developed it into a world beater and became very organised, employing the best UK and controversially for the time, Scandinavian Drivers.
The most impressive victory, was the gruelling 1960 Liege-Rome-Liege won by an all female crew, with Pat Moss (Stirling's sister) driving and Anne Wisdom navigating.
The effort was truly heroic and the girls overcame hallucinations caused by sleep deprivation, while still managing to drive flat out. At the time, the very thought of the so called gentler sex, beating all the best male drivers in the world was an unprecedented achievement and did much to uplift the image of 'women drivers' everywhere.
The 2912cc works spec engine, typically runs triple 45DCOE Weber carburetors, a 300 degree cam and a full race alloy head. Outputs are typically between 200 and 300 bhp. The output varies with the compression ratio and the choice of carburettor choke diameters, dependant on whether you want low down grunt for rallying or top end for racing. This car is a rally car and will accelerate to 60 mph in about 5.5 seconds and can almost crack 140mph.
The Achilles' Heel of the Big Healey, was cockpit heat (from the set back engine) and a lack of ground clearance. This car has the works 'in door' or 'sill mounted' exhaust to get the exhaust pipes out from under the car..
The gearbox is a straight cut 4 speed, with overdrive (a sort of ratio extender) on 3rd and 4th, giving 6 ratios. In this car, like the works machines, the overdrive switch is ideally mounted on the gear lever.
Fuel consumption averages around 14mpg, dropping to around 7mpg when pressing on. A long range 18 gallon works style fuel tank is therefore a vital addition.